Military History Anniversaries 01 thru 31 AUG

Events in History over the next 30 day period that had U.S. military involvement or impacted in some way on U.S military operations or American interests

Aug 00 1943 – WW2: USS Pompano (SS–181).  Date of sinking unknown. Most likely sunk by a Japanese mine or combined air and surface attack off northeastern Honshu, Japan. 77 killed

Aug 01 1801 – Tripolitan War: The schooner USS Enterprise defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair Tripoli after a fierce but one–sided battle.

Aug 01 1907 – Air Force Day: The Aeronautical Division in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army was established.

Aug 01 1942 – WW2: Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sinks U–166 as it approaches the Mississippi River, the first U–boat sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Aug 01 1950 – Korean War: Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrive in country from the U.S in defense of Pusan/Naktong Perimeter.

Aug 01 1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

Aug 02 1943 – WW2: Motor Torpedo Boat PT–109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.

LTJG Kennedy (standing at right) on PT-109 in 1943

Aug 02 1964 – Vietnam War: Gulf of Tonkin incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fire on the U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy.

Aug 02 1990 – Iraq: Iraq invades Kuwait initiating Operation Desert Shield which became Desert Storm on 17 JAN 91 when it became clear he would not leave.

Aug 03 1958 – Cold War: The first nuclear submarine USS Nautilus passes under the North Pole.

1

Aug 04 1790 – Coast Guard: The Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner of the COAST GUARD was established by Alexander Hamilton.

Aug 04 1873 –Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.

Aug 04 1914 – WWI: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.

Aug 04 1952 – Korean War: Battle for Old Baldy (Hill 266) which commenced on 26 JUN ends. Aug 04 1964 – Vietnam: Gulf of Tonkin Incident .The U.S.S. Maddox and Turner Joy exchange fire

with North Vietnamese patrol boats. Aug 04 1969 – Vietnam: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American

representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.

Aug 05 1861 – Civil War: Congress adopts the nation’s first income tax to finance the Civil War. Aug 05 1864 – Civil War: Admiral David Farragut, USN, exclaiming "Damn the torpedoes, full

speed ahead," ran through a Confederate minefield at Mobile Bay, Alabama, and captured a defending group of Confederate ships.

Aug 05 1951 – Korean War: The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.

Aug 05 1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia. Aug 06 1777 – American Revolution: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the

Siege of Fort Stanwix. Casualties and losses: US 465 - GB & Indians 93. Aug 06 1862 – Civil War: the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River

after sustaining damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Aug 06 1914 - WWI: First Battle of the Atlantic - two days after the United Kingdom had declared

war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.

Aug 06 1945 – WW2: Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B–29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

Little Boy Atomic Bomb and her deliverer Enola Gay today at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

Aug 06 1945 – WW2: USS Bullhead (SS–332) missing. Most likely sunk by Japanese Army aircraft (73rd Chutai) off Bali in the Java Sea. 84 killed.

Aug 06 1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Aug 07 1782 – American Revolution: Purple Heart day. General George Washington authorizes the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers as an award for military merit. Only 3 were given. As we know

2

it today it was reestablished in 1932 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington.

Aug 07 1789 – The United States War Department is established. Aug 07 1791 – Northwest Indian War: United States troops destroy the Miami town of

Kenapacomaqua near the site of present–day Logansport, Indiana. Casualties and losses: Indians 43 - US 3.

Aug 07 1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Law of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

Aug 07 1942 – WW2: The U.S. 1st Marine Division lands on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. First American amphibious landing of the war.

Aug 07 1964 – Vietnam: Congress overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on U.S. forces.

Aug 08 1918 – WWI: Hundred Days Offensive - Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. Casualties and losses: Allies 1,070,000 of which 127,000 were US - Ger & Aus-Hung 1,172,075

Aug 08 1942 – WW2: U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal. Aug 08 1944 – WW2: U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands. Aug 08 1950 – Korean War: U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at the

battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days. Casualties and losses: US 1,800 - NKA 3,500. Aug 08 1990 – Gulf War: Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to

the Gulf War shortly afterward. Aug 08 2000 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the

ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery. Aug 09 1862 – Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate

General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope. Casualties and losses: US 2.353 - CSA 1,338.

Aug 09 1877 – Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole - A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army. Casualties and losses: US 69 - Indians 70 to 90 killed.

Aug 09 1942 – WW2: Battle of Savo Island - Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force. Casualties and losses: US & AUS 1,077 - JP 58.

Aug 09 1945 – WW2: The B–29 bomber Bock’s Car drops a second atomic bomb (Fat Man) on Nagasaki, Japan killing 39,000 people. It was this second atomic bomb that induced the Japanese to surrender.

Aug 10 1861 – Civil War: Battle of Wilson's Creek – The war enters Missouri when a band of raw Confederate troops defeat Union forces in the southwestern part of the state. Casualties and losses: US 1,317 - CSA 1,232

Aug 10 1944 – WW2: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam. Aug 10 1950 – Korean War: President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to

fight in the War.

3

Aug 10 1961 – Vietnam: First use of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army. Aug 11 1972 – Vietnam: The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam. Aug 12 1898 – Spanish American War: Conflict officially ends after three months and 22 days of

hostilities. Aug 12 1948 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is struck from the naval record. Aug 12 1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre - 75 American POWs are murdered by North

Korean Army. Aug 12 1952 – Korean War: The 4 day Battle of Bunker Hill (Hill 122) began. First Major Marine

Combat in Western Korean Aug 12 1969 – Vietnam: American installations at Quan-Loi come under Viet Cong attack. Aug 13 1898 – Spanish-American War: Spanish and American forces engaged in a mock battle for

Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrendered in order to keep the city out of Filipino rebel hands.

Aug 13 1906 – The all black infantrymen of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment are accused of killing a white bartender and wounding a white police officer in Brownsville, Texas, despite exculpatory evidence; all are later dishonorably discharged.

Aug 13 1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

Aug 13 1942 – WW2: Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the "Development of Substitute Materials" project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

Oak Ridge K-25 plant, Hanford B Reactor, and S-50 Plant

Aug 13 1944 – WW2: USS Flier (SS–250) sunk by a Japanese mine south of Palawan in Balabac Strait. 78 killed, 8 survived and were rescued.

Aug 14 1842 – Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

Aug 14 1912 – United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

Aug 14 1941 – WW2: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.

Aug 14 1945 – WW2: Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in WW2 and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).

Aug 14 1965 – Vietnam: Advance units of the Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai, bringing U.S. Marine strength in South Vietnam to four regiments and four air groups.

Aug 14 1973 – Vietnam: The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia. Aug 14 2013 – National Navajo Code Talkers Day

4

Aug 15 1812 – War of 1812: The Battle of Fort Dearborn is fought between United States troops and Potawatomi at what is now Chicago, Illinois. US Militia defeated and taken prisoner. Casualties and losses: Indians 15 - US 93.

Aug 15 1942 – WW2: Operation Pedestal - The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.

Aug 15 1942 – WW2: The Japanese submarine I–25 departs Japan with a floatplane in its hold which will be assembled upon arriving off the West Coast and used to bomb U.S. forests.

Aug 15 1944 – WW2: Operation Dragoon - Allied forces land in southern France. Aug 15 1945 – WW2: Japan surrenders to end the war. Aug 15 1950 – Korean War: Two U.S. divisions are badly mauled by the North Korean Army in the 5

day Battle of the Bowling Alley in South Korea. Aug 15 1973 – Vietnam: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends. Aug 16 0000 – National Airborne Day. Aug 16 1777 – American Revolution: The Americans led by General John Stark rout British and

Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York. Casualties and losses: US 70 - GB 907.

Aug 16 1780 – American Revolution: American troops are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina. Casualties and losses: GB 325 - US 1,900.

Aug 16 1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.

Aug 16 1942 – WW2: The two–person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L–8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti–submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash–lands in Daly City, California.

Aug 16 1945 – WW2: Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on 6 MAY 42 is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.

Wainwright ordering the surrender of the Philippines and watched by a Japanese censor &

Wainwright (right) and MacArthur greet, August 1945

Aug 16 1964 – Vietnam: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.

Aug 16 1966 – Vietnam: The House Un–American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti–war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.

Aug 17 1862 – Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.

Aug 17 1862 –Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Aug 17 1863 – Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate–held Fort Sumter.

5

Aug 17 1864 – Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida. Casualties and losses: UE 302- CSA 8.

Aug 17 1942 – WW2: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese–held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari). Aug 17 1943 – WW2: Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily. Aug 17 1943 – WW2: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–

Regensburg mission. Aug 17 1943 – WW2: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina,

Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

Aug 17 1950 – Korea: Hill 303 massacre: 41American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army.

Aug 18 1864 – Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern – Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply–line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Casualties and losses: US 4,296 - CSA 1,620.

Aug 18 1914 – WWI: Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality

Aug 18 1951 – Korea: Battle of Bloody Ridge begins which continues until 5 SEP

Aug 18 1965 – Vietnam: Operation Starlite begins – United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.

Aug 18 1971 – Vietnam: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam. Aug 19 1782 – American Revolution: Battle of Blue Licks - the last major engagement of the war,

almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown. Casualties and losses: UD 83- GB/Indians 8.

Aug 19 1812 – War of 1812: The USS Constitution earns the nickname "Old Ironsides" during the battle off Nova Scotia that saw her defeat the HMS Guerriere.

Aug 19 1862 – Indian Wars: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.

Aug 19 1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. Aug 19 1944 – WW2: Liberation of Paris – Paris rises against German occupation with the help of

Allied troops. Aug 19 1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad

Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Aug 19 1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, downed American U–2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced

to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.

6

Aug 19 2010 – OIF: Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.

Aug 20 1794 – NW Indian War: Battle of Fallen Timbers - American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat. Casualties and losses: US 133 - Indians 19-40 killed.

Aug 20 1944 – WW2: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Aug 20 1950 – Korea: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Naktong River and assault the city of Taegu.

Aug 21 1778 – American Revolution: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondicherry.

Aug 21 1863 – Civil War: Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.

Aug 21 1918 – WWI: The Second Battle of the Somme begins. Aug 21 1942 – WW2: Guadalcanal campaign – U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese

ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru. . Aug 22 1777 – American Revolution: British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing

rumors of Continental Army reinforcements. Aug 22 1945 – Vietnam: Conflict in Vietnam begins when a group of Free French parachute into

southern Indochina, in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh. Aug 23 1775 – American Revolution: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the

Court of St. James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.

Aug 23 1864 – Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.

Aug 23 1950 – Korea: Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps are called involuntarily to active duty to fight.

Aug 23 1990 – Gulf War: Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

Aug 23 1994 – WWI: Eugene Bullard, the only black pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Bullard, as a French army corporal, His awards, and next to his aircraft

Aug 23 1996 – OEF/OIF: Osama bin Laden issues message entitled 'A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.'

Aug 24 1814 – War of 1812: British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House is set ablaze, though not burned to the ground; as well as several other buildings.

Aug 24 1816 - Indian Wars: The Treaty of St. Louis, composite name for a series of treaties (14) signed between the U.S. and various Native American tribes from 1804 through 1824, is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.

7

Aug 24 1942 – WW2: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons – Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo is sunk and US carrier USS Enterprise heavily damaged.

Aug 24 1944 – WW2: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris. Aug 24 1944 – WW2: USS Harder (SS–257) sunk by Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No. 22 off west

coast of Luzon, Philippines. 79 killed Aug 25 1921 – WWI: The U.S., which never ratified the Versailles Treaty ending World War I,

finally signs a peace treaty with Germany. Aug 25 1942 – WW2: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. Aug 25 1942 – WW2: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport

convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned–back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.

Aug 25 1944 – WW2: Paris is liberated by the Allies. Aug 25 1945 – Cold War: Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender,

armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.

Aug 26 1942 – WW2: First black Marine (Howard Perry) entered first recruit training camp (Montford Point, NC) for black Marines.

Aug 26 1949 – USS Cochino (SS–345) foundered after a battery explosion during a severe storm off northern Norway. 1 died

Aug 27 1776 – American Revolution: The Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington. Casualties and losses: US 2,000 - GB 388.

Aug 27 1918 - Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil. Casualties and losses: US 32 - MEX ~430.

Aug 27 1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by the first 15 nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it.

Aug 27 1943 – WW2: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Aug 27 1945 – WW2: B–29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied POW camps in China.

Aug 27 1945 – WW2: US troops land in Japan after Japanese surrender. Aug 28 1862 – Civil War: 3 day Second Battle of Bull Run starts. Also known as the Battle of

Second Manassas. Aug 28 1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province Aug 29 1778 – American Revolution: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of

Rhode Island. Casualties and losses: US 201 - GB 280. Aug 29 1861 – Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.

Casualties and losses: US 3 - CSA 715 Aug 29 1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4 (SS-23), the first U.S. submarine sunk in an

accident.

8

Photographed in 1913-15, in Honolulu drydock after salvage, and implosion hole inspection

Aug 29 1916 – Congress creates US Naval Reserve Aug 29 1942 – WW2: The American Red Cross announces that Japan has refused to allow safe

conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American POWs. Aug 29 1944 – WW2: 15,000 American troops liberating Paris march down Avenue des Champs

Elysees. Aug 29 1949 – Cold War: Soviet atomic bomb project – The Soviet Union tests its first atomic

bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Aug 29 1990 – Iraq: Saddam Hussein declares America can't beat Iraq Aug 29 2007 – USAF nuclear weapons incident: Six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are

flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base. Aug 30 1813 – Creek War - Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including

over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama. Aug 30 1862 – Civil War – Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union

forces under General Horatio Wright. Casualties and losses: US 5343 - CSA 451. Aug 30 1963 – Cold War: The Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes

into operation. Aug 31 1864 – Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on

Atlanta, Georgia. Aug 31 1941 – WW2: 23 U–boats sunk (80,000 ton) this month Aug 31 1942 – WW2: U boats sunk 108 ships (544,000 ton) this month Aug 31 1951 – Korea: The1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge. The 4 day battle

results in 2,700 Marine casualties.

[Source: Various Jul 2014 ++]

9